Frederick Jackson Turner Significance Of The Frontier Thesis

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Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis in his work, Significance of the Frontier is “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development” (p 31). The expansion of people into the new frontier is his way of explaining American development. The problem with this thesis is although he makes good points, which are the way in which people moved out bringing families and brining a new way of living. The frontier not the most important part of history, slavery is far more impactful to shaping American history than Turner’s idea of the frontier. Slavery brought in the dehumanization of African people in America, furthermore, it caused one of the bloodiest wars in …show more content…

First, slavery lead to one of the bloodiest wars in United States history. The Civil War started over slavery and the southern states rights to maintain their right. Within the document, South Carolina Ordinance of Secession (1860), “Those states have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions, and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of Slavery;” (p 280). This is part of the succession documents illustrates the reason why South Carolina left the Union. They are calling slaves their property and the government attempting to take away their property is a direct threat against the state. The authors point is to showcase that the foundation of the civil …show more content…

People continue to die and fight for these rights. Slavery is a distinct type of servitude that has a master and a servant, however, different from the old English Lord and peasant’s relationship, the servants in slavery have no rights, and they are property. An interesting idea that comes about while describing American slavery is in, George Alsop on the Benefits of Servitude, he makes a few claims, one being that servitude is necessary and he also claims that no country can be stable without it, furthermore, people would not be able to live without it (p. 96). This statement makes the claim that without any servitude there is no way for a government to form. However, he views the servitude of learning a trade or something like that of slavery. That is the dangerous connection that he makes here. Of course, there must be servitude, bosses hold power over the employees, however, complete dehumanization and the lack of rights given to people is not the same. So, these slave owners saw their slaves as their workers, however, they didn’t pay them, did not care about their health, or stop themselves from killing them. This view is part of the problem that lead to great wealth in the south. They had people working without any legal repercussions to pay them or make sure they are okay. Evidence of the old south and the complete dehumanization of Africans, is a story coming

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